Your customers are omnipresent – make sure you are too!

“Search online, buy offline” is more popular than “search offline, buy online”. Yet both trends prove one thing: omnichannel strategies are essential for successful retail – and especially for local shops.

Customers use every channel to shop successfully

Bricks-and-mortar retail is and remains popular, even if it has to come to terms with the digital channels. Anyone who hoped to run their business purely locally is mistaken: every shop belongs in the online world too, because that is where the customers are, where they find out about things, talk to each other and pass on recommendations. There is no need to compete with all-powerful rivals such as Amazon and co.; what matters is being visible online and keeping your customers happy.

Studies from this year and last have shown that buying behaviour looks different from what many assumed. Bricks-and-mortar retail is by no means certain to lose out, nor can online shops simply take over [1][2].

In 2015, 87% of all purchases began online and ended offline: well-informed customers first look for products on the internet, research further facts and compare prices. But then they go to local shops, try things out – and buy.

Combining the advantages of the shop with those of the internet

The reasons for this way of shopping are, quite literally, tangible: seeing, touching, trying out. Especially when the local retailer offers a professional appearance, competent service and personal contact, customers get advantages they cannot get online. What’s more, the products in the shop are available right away and can be taken home immediately.

At the same time, if less often, customers follow the opposite strategy: they use the hands-on advantages of the shop to try things out but then buy online. This mainly happens with household goods, electronics and fashion. 65 % of all customers have done this, but only 11 % do it regularly [1].

For local retailers and service businesses, both findings are good news: a clever mix of channels and content can open up real opportunities for a profitable communication and sales strategy.

There in the right micro-moment: by smartphone to the local shop

As a local retailer in particular, you can make good use of this omnipresent behaviour. More and more often, potential customers pick up their smartphone to follow an impulse and look something up. These micro-moments accompany us through everyday life – and you should be there digitally for every one of them:

Search engines – typically Google – break the mostly general search terms, such as “dress” or “brand XY”, down into local results. If customers do not find you there within a few seconds, you are no longer considered as a possible supplier at all. In Germany, 50 – 60 % of such “decisions” are now made on mobile devices [3].

People want to act on these impulses – and buy – as quickly as possible. If prospective customers see that something is available locally, they usually prefer that offer to the alternatives.

It is no coincidence that Media Markt and Saturn are now doing well with their online/offline strategy. And even if nobody would have expected it a few years ago: Amazon is going offline – it opened its first physical shop in Seattle back in 2015 and is planning up to 400 more.

Show up on every channel – quickly, simply and invitingly

What matters in your omnichannel strategy is that you and what you offer can be found again and again, on every channel: customers need to be reminded of you continuously. And every step towards you and with you has to be easy – really easy:

Your customers must be able to see the service or product they want in full, get all the information at a glance and get in touch or order almost in their sleep. Long loading times, tedious form-filling, phone numbers to type in and too many browser windows make users disappear instantly.

Which channels you can use and how to be found there

To be found, you first need to find out what your customers are really looking for – and how they look for it. After all, the point is to catch the micro-moment and then be there with relevant content, instantly and online. Which keywords do people search for, which questions do they ask, which benefits do they expect?

Your digital presence can be a classic website, a Facebook fan page and/or a separate mobile app. Ideally, your own solution should have many links between the channels and save you laborious work keeping content up to date.

In our last blog post we showed, with a concrete example, what advantages an app has as a direct and accessible touchpoint and how to put it into practice.

In retail, visual networks such as Instagram and Pinterest can be interesting too. They are a great way to share pictures of your products and make important first impressions. It is also worth mentioning that you can consider listing your products on Amazon or Google Shopping.

Clever communication, up-to-date content, easy handling – that is how omnichannel makes sense

Staying in touch is just as important as being found: your communication should be fast, straightforward, authentic and informative. Customers must enjoy communicating with you, be shown all your current products and interesting news, have to make hardly any effort and get the chance to give feedback.

All your digital points of contact must also load quickly and be usable straight away, without complicated or lengthy installations. If they are not, you will lose valuable visitors and potential customers very quickly – and for good.

Another advantage of your digital touchpoints: each of your channels can be reached through a link, so it is quick and easy to pass on. That opens the door wide to lasting recommendations, which happy users carry deep into the many layers of the social networks.

Neither billboards in town nor banners on the web, let alone the good old “Yellow Pages”, can offer you all this!

Tell us how your customers now find you more easily on the internet, and share your new experiences of communicating and selling! What have you learned? Where do you still see potential for yourself, and what questions are still open? We look forward to hearing from you!

[1] DigitasLBI, Connected Commerce 2015: http://www.digitaslbi.com/de/presse/deutsch/kaufverhalten-einzelhandel/

[2] EHI Retail Institute, Wie der Onlinehandel stationäre Läden beflügelt (how online retail gives local shops a boost): https://www.ehi.org/de/pressemitteilungen/wie-der-onlinehandel-stationaere-laeden-befluegelt/

[3] Google Inside AdWords: https://adwords.googleblog.com/2015/05/building-for-next-moment.html